


Lethal

by Agib



Series: Febuwhump 2020 [15]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Peter Parker is a Mess, Poisoning, Sickfic, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:49:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22827454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agib/pseuds/Agib
Summary: A 'flu' turns out to be something potentially lethal.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Febuwhump 2020 [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619311
Comments: 2
Kudos: 133





	Lethal

**Author's Note:**

> This is so short oops, I'm zoom-zooming. 
> 
> I mean hey, I haven't not posted in the past twenty-one days, so like. That's an achievement.

“There you go, just breathe kiddo. In and out, nice and slow.” Tony rubbed appeasing circles around Peter’s back, gently shushing him every time he tried to open his mouth and apologise. “Just get it out of your system, it’s okay,” the sloshing against the porcelain of the toilet bowl wasn’t pleasant, but Tony didn’t like the fact that the kid still felt the need to apologise for it.

He was burning up, shivering violently despite how rapidly he had grown sweaty and feverish. It had begun as a sniffle, and then soon enough Peter was strangely quiet. Tony watched him breathing heavily, growing pale, and eventually standing up, swaying, and then stumbling towards the bathroom.

He followed, despite the boy’s protests.

A flicker of worry at the sudden sickness had steadily grown into an uncomfortable lump of protectiveness in his own stomach. Peter wasn’t exhibiting any unusual symptoms of a bug, but then again, he shouldn’t even be able to get sick with his healing and metabolism.

“Mr. Stark?” Peter murmured plaintively as Tony shuffled about on the floor beside him, pulling out his phone.

“Hey kiddie, I’m just getting good old Bruce on the line,” he mumbled, absently running a hand over the boy’s forehead and pushing his hair back. The line rang four times before Bruce answered, and when he did Tony had to pause as Peter coiled himself up as another wave of nausea hit him. “Hey, you still have those charts and stats of the kid, yeah?”

“Uh, give me a second to pull it up…” Tony took the chance to put Bruce on speaker so he could comfort Peter as he couched and retched. “Got it, what’s up?”

“I need you to work out how serious a bug would need to be to knock the kid out of commission and actually get him sick,” he explained. Bruce could probably hear Peter groaning uncomfortably in the background.

“Tony, I don’t think he can get sick. Any kind of bug would get taken out before it had enough time to make him sick.” He sighed, handing Peter the glass of water from the counter beside him. “His immune system combined with the accelerated healing would make everything practically insignificant.”

“What else could it be?” He asked incredulously. Fear was bubbling in his throat now. There were so many things out there that anyone could get their greasy hands on and use as a weapon.

“Have you run a blood test? He could’ve been exposed to something on patrol.” Tony bit back a curse, he hadn’t even considered that.

“S’meone threw this weird powd’r at me,” Peter slurred. Tony gripped his arm slightly harder. The kid blinked up at him tiredly. “I figured it w’s drugs or somethin’…”

“Jesus, kid,” Tony hoisted him to his shaky feet, pulling one arm over his own shoulder in support. He managed a clipped goodbye and thank you to Bruce before turning off his phone and sitting the kid against the edge of the tub. “You’re lucky I’m loaded and can afford luxurious, fancy med kits like this in every room,” he joked hurriedly.

Peter barely blinked when Tony dropped the large metal container on the sink and pulled out an alcohol swab and a blood test needle. He twitched after a small lag when Tony started collecting a small portion of blood, but quickly went still against his side, eyes fluttering. “Nap time, huh?” He muttered to himself as he watched the kid slowly releasing all of his weight as he grew more lethargic.

Peter huffed quietly, frowning as Tony asked FRIDAY to send the blood to the tower’s testing lab with a drone and have the results rushed. He squirmed lazily when he was once again helped to his feet, and Tony gave up on the idea of carrying the kid into a guest room up the stairs after only a few moments. Instead, he found himself helping the kid sprawl out on a three-seater couch, throwing a decorative blanket over his body and gently settling himself in the armchair one seat over.

Peter’s condition stayed the same for fifteen minutes, and he only began to rouse when Tony had to shake him awake for an antidote.

“Kid, you need to take this right now.” The rush and sharpness in Tony’s tone had Peter awake in seconds. A glass of water was in his hand and a small, yellow pill in the other. He winced when the pill burnt on the way down, and he immediately followed it up with the remainder of the water. He exhaled, coughing slightly before shivering to Tony’s dismay.

“What’s gonna happen now?” He asked, unsure of whether he wanted the real answer.

“It’s going to be just like a flu for a few more hours and then you’re going to want to sleep for the rest of the night, okay?” Tony reached out and took his wrist, touching his forehead with the back of his other hand. “You aren’t too hot anymore, but your pulse is all over the place.”

“M’kay,” he sighed, leaning his head back against the couch and closing his eyes again. His head was pounding, stomach still churning unhappily but keeping well out of the danger zone for now. He hated throwing up, he had chest pains for days afterwards.

“You can sleep, we caught this thing before it turned lethal,” Tony said quietly.

“Lethal?” He blinked his eyes back open.

“For someone with slower healing, yes. You would have gone into respiratory failure; the flu symptoms are like a decoy.” Peter frowns, opens his mouth, closes it again, and then his scowl darkens. “It isn’t common, it’s for the underground crimes,” Tony soothes, watching the boy soften slightly.

“That’s horrible,” Peter complains. He curls his knees up to his chest and turns his face away into the side of his shoulder to stifle a yawn.

“Go to sleep, kid.” Peter didn’t protest, only rolled onto his side so his head was pressed against Tony’s knee. He nudged his chin up until a hand rested gently into his mess of hair, carefully beginning to detangle it.

**Author's Note:**

> Give @spidersonangst @febufluff-whump (on Tumblr) all the credit, the only reason this is happening this month is because of them!


End file.
